44A. "You've got a lot of nerve!": WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?. New idiom to me.

57A. Retaliatory steps: COUNTERMEASURES

61A. Ups and downs of one's youth?: TEETER-TOTTERING. In playground.

Another humbling slog. So many unknowns & unaccustomed references. But I was so pleased to see HAN (6D. River to the Yangtze) in the grid. It's the longest branch of the Yangtze River (longest river in China/Asia). Han River rises from my hometown Shaanxi Province (Xi'An is its capital). There are 56 ethnic groups in China, about 92% are Han, which is named after the river. I am a Han.

60 comments:

Good morning! What a challenging puzzle today, so many things that I had no idea about - art (Rembrandt, Ernst), places (Jura, Han, Agni), muses, and the scifi race. I completed the puzzle only with red letter help, and a cheat or two.

CC - I don't think the word doge literally translates to duke. The doge was a magistrate or ruler in Venice. He lived in a marvelous palace adjacent to St Mark's cathedral. I think the last doge was in the 1600's, but I'm not positive of that. They certainly had all-encompassing authority over the Venetians.

The eggsac clue struck me as extremely creepy. I had to type in the answer and move on quickly, eeeuuuuwwww... what's the word - arachnophobia??

I thought the Russian figure skater showed pretty poor sportsmanship. The skating was nice to watch last night, however, and more to come Sunday night.

What a challenge this morning! I am like Gracie; needed a lot of red letter help and good guessing, but no cheating or lookups. My time was 45 online, about double the normal.

Several unknowns: epact, Agni, Acta, rente,Jura, Inxs, Meyer, Edie. Was not aware of the chinchillas/Andean connection.

Jean and I have been having fun hosting our daughter, Lee, and her nine year old son who are visiting from Hillsdale, NY. We drove up the coast yesterday to Rockport to visit my sister and niece.

Early signs of Spring are appearing here; some trees are beginning to leaf out and folks are starting to set out tomato plants, but I think that is pushing it a bit. A late freeze is a good possibility this year.

Oh boy, what a slog to finish today. Needed to google a few. Didn't know Oka River city or the Hindu fire god. I can't keep those gods straight in my head. Other unknowns filled in with perps and lucky guesses.

Thank you, C.C., for the info about Han and Yangtze. Next time I see it, I'll remember because of the connection.

@tfrank - nice to know that spring is starting somewhere!

Happy Birthday, Argyle! At least there were no Roman numerals in today's puzzle.

Good morning CC et al., No time for the puzzle today but wanted to wish my favorite Santa Baby a very, very, very Happy Birthday. We're practically twins, Argyle, just born a couple of days apart, in different cities, different states, different moms, and a few years apart - minor details. I'll toast to you big time tonight. I hope your day is "spectacular", as Dennis says, and I hope you join me today in doing something naughty and nice, as Carol suggested. You're the man! Happy Birthday today and I wish you many, many more.

This one was a definite challenge. In the end I got them all right, but it took 61 minutes. The center west was the last part to fall into place. Center east just before that. I felt like I had to use a lot of the trivia locked up in my gray matter in order to work out the bits I really didn't know at all.

What a challenging puzzle, which I did on the LA Times site at 4:00am. So many difficult clues, like Hindu fire god: AGNI, which I only knew from taking a course in Ayurvedic medicine online, METZ, which I did not know; Capital on Upolu Island: APIA; I guess we have moved from our Hawaiian vacation to Samoa, we will have SAMOA of those clues. Jack Kerouac’s first wife? Now I must read her book You’ll Be Okay as I thought she only married him to help him get out of jail. I answered Oka River city: OREL, and I have absolutely no idea where I know that from, maybe my old Russian grandmamma mentioned it. And while the Jewish calendar is based on the 19 year cycle, I was unfamiliar with EPACT . You have to be a really dedicated nerd to know Nicholas Meyer for his work on the Star Trek movies, but many of us mystery devotees remember him from writing and making a movie of The Seven Percent Solution a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, with the title referring to the strength of the cocaine injected by Holmes. I have always loved the Rex Harrison version of I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face . I am sure many of you share that view. Speaking of theater, I watched 39 STEPS an incredible comedic interpretation of the wonderful Hitchcock film of the same name. It is now on tour across the country and if it comes your way, I highly recommend it as a special night of silly entertainment. But I digress from the puzzle, MANNY ACTA…well the puzzle could have been create before he was fired?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Argyle, and many, many more.

I think I am missing all kinds of posts from yesterday, there are references to posts which do not exist on my comment section 10:05pm anon?), what is up with that? Were you making trouble little miss Helpicopter? And Lo-li-ta, how did I end up in the mix, and who was non-plussed and this better or worse than being non-minused? I thought the skating analysis was spot on.

Waiting for the sun and the Italian Festival down the street

Fun to all

Dennis? No relapse I hope, and we are still storing up are warmth for you

My first across and down pass today yielded only 15 answers, some of which, I'sure were wrong. It just isn't worth a whole day of g'ing so I gave up--first time for ages. Feltr like a trivia contest again.

However I did come here to see how many others had as much difficulty as I did, and to wish Argyle a happy birthday!

We can see Cruciverb is still down. So many of us had to wait for newspapers or for this morning's LAT online site. I hope it is back soon.

I don't know why, but this one came to me without too much head banging.

Of course I had to start with the Downs, but once I had five or six letters of each 15 letter fill, the phrases sort of came to me.

Since Lois will be away today... I see a definite theme story here. "First Date Is The Last Date".

ERNST takes EDIE out to DINNER AND A MOVIE. Afterward, he gives her an INEXPENSIVE GIFT, maybe a CITRINE. It's INXS of what he has TO SPARE, but he is hoping she'll say "SO AM I" when he asks her if she is ENTO a little TEETER TOTTERING. But EDIE says "I CAN"T SAY FOR SURE", even when he URGED her. "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?", he says. EDIE gives him the EVIL eye, " If EYELET you, it's pretty SERTAn you'll ACTA like an ANIMAl, so it's a definite NO NO. LETT me alone ORELse!". ERNST considers COUNTER MEASURES, like leaving her by the side of the STATE RTE. But he knows it makes more SENSE to shake EDIE's HANd and DELLiver her home. He goes off muttering "What A RIP, this is EGGSACly DEJA VU of my last date with ELIZA". EDIE thinks that ERNST is the biggest ding-a-LING and JURAk she had ever METZ and spends the rest of her evening planning for her next dates with NOEL AN DEAN. That's LIFE!

This puzzle has six 15 letter clues which were solvable.I thought "SO AM I the only one that was crushed by the little stuff" ???Was the EHS, at 39d, a timely salute to our Canadian neighbors?This was hard even for Saturday.

CA LETT me say I always thought every puzzle has a story. Yours left me LOL.

Learning moments (there were many)EDIE, EPACT, RYN, OREL, AGNI, METZ & JURA.So, yes the east side came very slowly.

COACH, Signaler in a box was clever. The 3rd Base coach signals the batter. It's Spring Training all over the place here. Warmer weather will soon follow.

Manny ACTA was fired last July by the Nats. Now he is the Cleveland Indians Mgr.ED: Rich Norris that could have been corrected easily.

The good part was I had ELOI and APIA without thinking.

"What A RIP" is probably what a STONER would say if the dobie was any good.

Though the crosses got her, is EDIE, Kerouac's first wife, really well known?

I googled EDIE Kerouac-Parker, her relationship, marriage & annulment with Jack happened before I was born.Jack Kerouac died Oct. 1969 in my home town, St.Petersburg, when I was a senior in High School. That's when I read 'On the Road' which lead me to think for myself.(There comes a time when every kid must develop their own ideas that don't necessarily parrot their parents.)

Struggled with the Caesarean opening, VENI.Kept thinking C-Section. Knew I had no idea what that could be. Great clue.

My preference of the Caesarean quote is:VINI, Vidi, Vat69"I came, I saw, I had a Scotch!"

Though daunted by the puzzle at first glance, I found the straight-forward nature of the six 15-letter fill to be an asset in today's solving experience. Most unknowns came fairly easily with the perps. My biggest challenge was in the south, as I held on to AIRTIME for quite a while before conceding to AIRDATE, and wasn't sure which "...."-zoic to use.

Lemonade-Thanks for the "My Fair Lady" tune. One of my favorite musicals of all time.

Argyle-Happy Birthday to you!

C.C.-Thank you for a terrific job of blogging, once again. I am always in awe of your vast wealth of knowledge of trivia and Americana, and your amazing grasp of the English language!

Thank you, well-wishers, one and all. 65 doesn't have the weight it use to. People retire earlier and full social security is later now. It seems like AARP starts sending stuff at 40. The age for senior discounts is all over the place.

But I'm sure glad I've made it this far!

Now today's puzzle aged me. I checked some of Bruce Venzke's other puzzles(He had a few Tuesday's that I blogged.) They were a mix of hard and easy entries. I need the long entries today to get the short ones. And there was trouble in the mid-east.

The city on the Oka(34A) can be Orel or Open or Oryol. It took some digging but I found 2 sites that helped. Map & Site.

Again are you part of the effort to "kill" newspapers? Making obscure puzzles like this one today is ridiculous. What age are you trying to appeal to? Kerouac's first wife, Oka River City, and the Nationals managaer. Ha ha on you, he's not even there anymore. What's the point of your puzzles if using a crossword dictionary doesn't even help. 99% of my friends complain on a weekly basis about your puzzles. Please4 answer this question: what action should we readers take to get a change in your puzzle culture. Even after I see the answers, I find them to be a big stretc. Please make a change in your puzzles and SOON!

What a bugger this is; haven't quite finished yet, so haven't read any answers or comments.I just read yesterday's. What great insight John Lampkin gave us, and Dan Naddor's puzzles continue to stump me, but I love trying.About the time I finished, Truman ran in.

His shirt said, I dig snow" which reminded me of Dick and all of you who continue to be buried. Loved "The Snow Storm", CA.

Dick, I hope you recover quickly.Hmmm, being a slow hand man could be an asset.oops, did I say that?

Jeannie, great recipe, similar to mine. I throw in a handful of cashews at the end.

I will return to today's c/w. Fun to see Han in it, CC. When I taught the dynasties in China to my 6th graders, the group who got to research the Han Dyn. were the luckiest. It was the Golden Age in Chinese history. So much was accomplished: the Silk Road was established, science and technology was brillant-papermaking, negative numbers in math, acupunctute,raised relief maps, and seismometers are some that I remember.

OK, this was just a break from Googling orel, agni, apia, and Ernst. Thought "caesarean opening" was rude, until "veni" came to mind.

I've been reading that so many of our blog friends had a lot of difficulty with today's puzzle. As I said earlier, the phrases came pretty easily to me and that made the shorter perps doable.

OREL, AGNI and METZ were all unknowns, but I filled in the Down perps without even looking at them until they were a done deal.

Same thing with ACTA, ENTO and JURA. I admit I wanted FLUFFY for "Like chinchillas", but I already had NOEL and DUES, so I knew that couldn't be correct. We must have seen APIA fairly recently because I put that in without a second thought.

Perhaps this wasn't so tough for me because my little story, made up of the phrases and other fill, was a familiar one. If I had substituted "Clear Ayes" for "Edie", you would know a lot about my younger dating history.

Anon@12:47, C.C. blogs about the LA Times puzzles. She has absolutely no control over the construction or content of any puzzles. You will have to contact the LA Times directly to voice your complaint. You must keep in mind that there are many levels of puzzle difficulty and skill of puzzle solvers. If you find these puzzles too difficult, there are many others that are available in print and online. Those of us who comment here enjoy the majority of LAT puzzles just the way they are.

Argyle & C.C., I thought the Anon@12:47 comment was answerable, since it sounded desperate, rather than personal or insulting. Hope that is within the troll rules.

When GAH and I were in China in 2005, we cruised the Yangzee for five days. One of the side trips was an rowboat journey along the unbelievably scenic Shennong Stream. After our lovely guide Lisa and the oarsmen sang several traditional love songs, she asked that the occupants of our boat sing a song too. Not being shy (ya think?) I started it going and everyone on board joined in, with our song echoing against the cliffs. It is a fine memory of that day. My choice? "Row Row Row Your Boat".

On Saturdays I typically start doing the perpendicular at once then I can see how the phrases will develop and usually can complete them after a few mosaic fills. I thought the top three fourths was fairly easy, and in fact, I have a niece named Edie, but she spells it Eydie, named for Eydie Gorme, but both were contemporaries.

During the last part I was greatly distracted because we have some illnesses in the family; my brother's brother-in-law had a massive heart attack last week and is in critical condition; one of the greats toddlers fell and broke his leg. So, many long conversations were wedged in between solving this puzzle and I shall be visiting the sick later today.

Clear Ayes:Loved your story.

Anonymous:Hang in there. Solving puzzles is not only for fun, but to learn new facts, ideas and even a few foreign phrases. If you want easier ones, try the United Features Syndicate puzzles. They are easy and fun.

According to "Charlotte's Web" which my classes loved, a spider lays 500 eggs. Here in the desert, black widows can be a big problem.

Very tough puzzle for me. While I believe that all is fair in love, war and crosswords, I really dislike clues which refer to other clues, as in today's 41 down, and particularly when the puzzle is very difficult.

I'm done.I loved the "look" of today's c/w, but then realized that the H stood for HUH? Love the looks of the word phish, but it isn't what it looks like either.Had to laugh at LAIN-no one uses that word correctly, not even most English teachers. In fact, we avoid it, hoping no one notices.

CA, wow, a fun artful play on words. :)

Went to Wikiped. to learn more about chinchillas since I didn't realize they were Andean. I had a friend who raised them in her basement, but never played with them which I thought was strange. As cute as they are, they seem to need lots of care, including dust baths, and very cool temps. New word for me: crepuscular- their activity peaks at dawn and dusk.

this puzzle was tougher than most. even after using Google, I still had to get some ( a lot ) of the answers off the site. these kind of puzzles are not fun. I like the ones that have puns and word stretches. this puzzle was an encyclopedia exercise.

I had many of the same unknowns as others have already mentioned. But was able to finish due to the perps, a few red letters, and lots of lucky guesses!

C.C.: EKED may not have been the answer this puzzle was looking for in 35A, but I thought it was a very clever response for that clue! And that citrine is beautiful!

I think REP is one of those shortened words for REPUTATION that are commonly accepted on their own, rather than being considered an abbreviation. Kind of like "street CRED" is used instead of CREDENTIALS. It's slang.

Happy birthday, Argyle! I hope you have some wonderful plans for celebrating!

Well, as some of you said, this puzzle was just too hard for me too...I tried and like Andrea, I got about 4 or 5 fills the first time through. It is a good learning experience and I will keep the answers for future use, but I do not enjoy it when I have to look up soooo many words. Not the constructor's fault, just my limited knowledge and that will improve, I sincerely hope. :)

A very happy birthday to you Argyle...hope you are enjoying the day despite your weather. It's best to sit by a cozy fire with a bottle of something stimulating.

Fellow bloggers:Having read your many comments about the difficulty of today's puzzle, let me take you back to other much more difficult ones. One that brought me to my knees about two months ago was by Naddor and that's when I discovered all of you and this wonderful blog.

So much of what is in a puzzle is repetetive, not in sequence, but over time, and as Carol points out, it's good to save them for future use. Many times, it's dejavu, but when it's a first, it's a good learning experience.

One example is "rente"; I know it only because of xwds.

My aged brain is full of those kinds of trivia and I am sure yours is too or soon will be.

Hi C.C. & gang, another challenge puzzle for Saturday, we did it again in tandem with my wife in hard copy pencil and me doing it online to check...

I agree with most of the comments so far about the difficulty level but I think that's about standard now.

The 'rente' word made me remember that we visited Spain in 1997 and it was a boom time then and I remember seeing lots of venta or 'sale' signs posted everywhere you went in the countryside along the roads. There were countless tower cranes building lots of high rises also.

Here's a link to a free language translator that I use for foreign words.

For Jeannie: I thought you'd like to know that shortly I'm leaving to hunt down the ingredients for your meatloaf recipe that we're making for tonight's dinner.

The only Chinese friend I had died 20 years ago. I can't ask him, so, may I ask you something that bothers me still? It involves Star Wars. In the Star Wars movie George Lucas named one of his alien races "The Borg". It makes me think of "The Han". I don't believe it's a very flattering reference, do you? Or did you ever even notice it? Maybe I'm the only one. I'd like to know what a Chinese person thinks.

p.s.

When I first met my friend, Long Shon King(I'm sure the spelling is wrong), at the Peking Cafe in Butte Montana, he couldn't speak any English at all. One year later he could carry on a good conversation in English with me. That was just amazing to me. Yet here you are just 10 years or so in the U.S. and you are doing the crossword puzzle for me. Totally astounding!

Hello All--I still have mud all over my shoes from the slog I had with today's puzzle. I couldn't get a purchase on very many of the long phrases, and even after I had the first couple in place, the others eluded me.

I had to come here to finish things off today.

I really wanted to wish Argyle a Happy Birthday, and many many more. Sixty-five? You are just a babae in the woods when it comes to being a senior. Enjoy the discounts, medicare and whatever else being a senior brings. The best is yet to come.

CA, You can easily give Lois a run for her money when it comes to giving us a laugh using the puzzle answers. LOL.

Bill G. I don't remember when they started showing complete Curling games but they are sliding the stone 93 feet, it weighs approx. 40 lds. and takes a lot of precise positioning.Plus it is fun to watch, every 4 years.I like and I'm addicted to it.

Eddy B.I read that article, they figure there is enough for at least 30+ years. Since I'm 57 (DOB 8/23/52) I think they have enough for my lifetime.

A bit of trivia: dinosaurs first appeared in the Triassic Age about 200 million years ago (after the most catastrophic disaster known--the Permian Extinction--which killed an estimated 98% of everything alive on the planet).They reached their peak during the Jurassic Age (as in Jurassic Park) and disappeared after the Cretaceous Epoch about 65 million years ago. "Jurassic" is a term that comes from the Jura Mountains in Europe, where the first (index) fossils of the middle age of dinosaurs were first discovered in the early 1800's.

Thanks Chickie, but Lois can come up with inspired posts every day. My stories are just a "once in a while" thing.

Lemonade, I enjoyed "The Seven Percent Solution" very much. In the movie version, I thought Nicol Williamson was an excellent Holmes. I also read Meyer's "The West End Horror". I recently read "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" by Laurie R. King. Ms. King has written a series of Holmesian pastiche mysteries, partnering Holmes with a woman, young Mary Russell. Egad!

None of us will ever hurl down a hill, track or half-pipe, on skis, sled or board at 90 mph, while performing death defying flips and jumps. The wonderful thing about curling is that we can watch it and think "I could do that!"

Lawn bowling is the dry-land equivalent to curling I'd say. There is a lawn bowling green in a neighboring city (Hermosa Beach) just south of here. My friend, Ralph, and I tried it a few years back. The bowls are weighted so they will curve as they slow down. I liked it but found it to be much harder than it looked to do well. That's also when I found out I had shoulder problems (rotater cuff) since I had a hard time making my arm go straight.

I'm a west coaster for the weekend, visiting my 91 year old father in Red Bluff, CA, so my post is well past my usual bedtime. Gives me a chance to read lots of earlier comments. I see the usual frustration with Saturday's level and enough praise and enthusiasm to know the editors are on the right track raising the bar through the week. I am completing puzzles that would have stumped me a year ago, although today I needed help. I choose to Google for help, having a real aversion to crossword dictionaries. I did the puzzle online today and eventually gave in to red letter help to find a mistake that kept me from finishing.

I almost forgot to mention that my dad is also a crossword lover. At one point this evening we had 4 of us doing 4 different crossword puzzles at once! Then we switched to Scrabble.

Remember me? My wife went to the Philippines last Wednesday so I went out for lunch yesterday and did a puzzle. Well, actually, I started a puzzle and didn't finish it. I've been chatting with her a lot on yahoo messenger so I didn't come to your blog until now.

I got "DINNER AND A MOVIE" and "INEXPENSIVE GIFT" but I wanted I HAVE NO DECIDED for "I CAN'T SAY FOR SURE" I had "TEETER-TOTTERING"but I wanted AIR TIME instead of "AIR DATE" so I figured it was wrong. In retrospect I did very well to get three out of six 15-letter words.

I also wanted TAUT for "LAIN", ERS for "EHS" and FEES for "DUES". I got "SERTA" but I originally thought of SEALY. I was a bit disappointed by EVIL for "Dark" because most Black people aren't evil but they are dark. On the other hand I wanted A GYP for "A RIP" even though "I was gypped" is a racist term refering to gypsies. Oh well.

I have a confession: when I typed Chinese before, I used google translate to help me but now I can type Chinese without help. My typing skills have improved since I started chatting online with people on Facebook using Chinese.